This specialty Stout Wheat Bread with Cherries and Chocolate combines elements of tart and sweet without overwhelming the end product with either taste. The secret to maintaining this balance is the inclusion of rich stout beer in the bread. Whether sliced and simply toasted, or used for something as fancy as French toast, this unique loaf is bound to attract attention

The combination of stout, cherries and chocolate works well in this specialty bread due to the complexity of the ingredients and their complementary flavor notes. The richness of the creamy Guinness stout and its coffee flavors combine with the bittersweet chocolate, and the bite of the tart cherries yields a complex, yet balanced, bread that isn’t overly sweet.

This loaf is delightful for breakfast, but doesn’t need to be limited to mornings. It’s great for a coffee break, snack or after-dinner treat. While this specialty bread stands perfectly fine on its own, perhaps with a simple spread of butter, it takes on luxurious indulgence when lightly toasted and accented with a smear of softened cream cheese.

This Stout Wheat Bread with Cherries and Chocolate is also a good candidate as a base for French toast. It’s hearty, thanks in part to the addition of whole wheat, which brings a nice change of pace in terms of its texture compared to the typical sponginess of most varieties of French toast. Also, the use of chocolate and cherry ingredients, along with the stout beer, brings significant diversification to a sophisticated, more-adult French toast application.

Kathryn Conrad is senior food stylist for Trusted Media Brands Inc. and has been a professional food stylist and recipe developer for more than 15 years. Her clients have included Taste of Home, Cooking Light, Anheuser-Busch, Duncan Hines, Pillsbury, E. & J. Gallo Winery and the Campbell Soup Co. She is a culinary adviser to the Whole Grains Council. For more information, visit kathrynconrad.webs.com.